Thursday, March 23, 2017

Part one in my series of the main random encounter tables for the different terrain of the Furthest Lands continent. I like variety in my random encounters, so we're going d00 style. The plains, particularly the Gragot Plain have the highest encounter % of terrain types. Players must take steps or be regularly beset. This table is not meant to serve as the true monster entry for any creature within, I'll make those with nice illustrations at some point. See the previous post on Wildlife for pictures of the prehistoric animals on this list. Enjoy.

25-26 Fissure/Cave/Lair (1d4) 30% chance of connecting to the Beneath
1. Deep fissure in earth, may be old or newly opened.
2. Lair of underground nesting creature.
3. Cave, cleared and habitable.
4. Cave, cleared but occupied by npcs.

27-28 Dromiceioseismos Herd - huge (50') flightless birds, non-hostile but dangerous if harassed. Sometimes attract the largest of predators to an area.

29-30 Kitemouth - huge aerial gulper eel, swims through the air as if it were water, naturally invisible until its mouth opens (around 1,500'). Consumes entire herds of animals or the largest possible prey items. Will not target a party of adventures, but will target a caravan. Swallows and retreats, remaining visible while digesting.

31-32 Shard Leech Scree - razor-edged stones used as the shell of a land mollusc, 4"-14". Hide in areas of loose rock waiting for man size or larger prey, throw themselves en masse at a target, pierce flesh and release a mild paralytic venom, drink their fill of blood, fall out of the target, and move away from the remains.

47-48 Quendapil (Herd Nucleus, Tyrant Kitty) - a brown-furred, cat-sized, boneless creature with six stubby pink legs, and a pink underbelly. It seems to have a "head" portion, but no eyes, nose, mouth, or ears. It breathes, but through unseen stoma. It has powerful psychic abilities that allow it to mass dominate large numbers of low INT creatures. These dominated creatures view the Quendapil as either their only precious offspring, or an external part of their own body. They will die for it. They are also taking low-level emotional cue commands and will act as its limbs. The Quendapil feeds on the protective instincts of those in its power and seeks to expand that network as much as possible to get the most nourishment and feel the most secure. The larval form of another creature?

53-54 Mutant Troll Pack - slightly undersized trolls that mutate as they regenerate. May be already mutated or normal when encountered. During regeneration of massive damage they can fuse together into larger abominations or break into smaller, independent, ruined parts.

63-64 Flash Fire/Flash Flood - short-lived spirit or elemental fire creatures are often birthed/released/woken by the passage of a flash fire or on its leading edge. The same is true for elemental water creatures and floods.

71-72 Nature Spirit (1d4)
1. Siccarada (Grass Spirit) - a sweet green smell, a rustling, sunlight between blades. The softest, most luxuriant touch, or skin separating razor cuts. Alternately serpentine and porcupine.
2. Prey Spirit - a possessing spirit that fills a creature with the urges to flee, to hide, and to procreate.
3. Ea'ea - an instilling spirit of growth and energy. Can transform any living thing into a force to be reckoned with, at a cost.
4. Waiwie "Tilted Scale" (Chaos Spirit) - from a distance a glowing dragonfly, closer just branching luminous nerves. A spirit that takes/erases elements of law and society from an individual and replaces them with natural elements (Example: the Waiwei steals your money and replaces it with meat or seeds, or maybe erases the Fasinaa language from your mind and replaces it with the tongue of flowers or birds).

73-74 Andrewsarchus - large, aggressive mammalian carnivore.

75-76 Watering Hole - roll another 1d3 encounters, interacting with each other. At the height of Sunhold, most creatures will endure each other's company, but peace is tenuous...

77-78 Indricotherium - massive rhino-giraffes.

79-80 Nimbus Fisherman - huge jelly-type creature which surrounds itself in clouds, and dangles its stinging tentacles to the plains below. Usually encountered with symbiotic scavengers.

92 Gorefex - a colossal "seasonal" monster, emerging to feed once every few decades. Spoken of in rumors, always the thing caravan leaders worry about, the ever-present plains boogey-monster. Encountered most often in a hibernation phase.

95-96 Weird Plants (1d6)
1. Razorgrass Field - 5'+ serrated grass in direction of party movement, causes bleeding wounds if moved through, difficult to cut or burn.
2. Krangee Seeds - sticky burr-like seeds the party may pass through. The seeds need to be digested by a predatory animal to germinate. They release an odor after being separated from the main plant for 10 minutes which attracts predatory animals.
3. Jemmies - red-orange fist-size blossoms with thick petals. Their citrus sour scent compels creatures to spread the yellow pollen to other, distant fields of the flowers.
4. Lo Plum Grove - trees bearing delicious intoxicating plums. Highly potent, no ill effects beside impairment and a light hangover. 25% chance of drunken animal encounter.

97-98 Kyanbolo ("Bird Dragons") - 20' tall, grey furred/feathered wyvern-shaped creature. Feathered wings, great toothed jaws. They have incredibly large and powerful talons, which they wear pieces of armor, magic rings, and bracelets on. They make nothing and seek out magical items, both to use and to elevate themselves socially. They eat many races, but they despise the Chrichoral and merely murder them violently and brutally.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Wildlife

The wildlife of the Furthest Lands is diverse to the extreme. The continent itself is quite large, but it could never account alone for the tremendous variety of animal and plant species. The natural life here can be divided into three groups: "common" current earth animals, "prehistoric" earth animals, and "strange" animals of my invention. Within each group there may be normal and magical individual species (ex. hadrosaurs of several types exist, but one type can create a small sonic boom by inflating its elaborate fluted crest and honking), knowledge is important.

Common Animals

This is just a short list of some common animals of the Furthest Lands that are identical to those native to our own planet.

Prehistoric Animals

"Let's make the size comparison figure look like he has a death wish."

Diprotodon - herds of these van-sized wombats are found all across the continent in the plains and scrubland. Commonly domesticated as beasts of burden, rarely as mounts.

Andrewsarchus -large mammalian predators of the plains.

Diatryma - and a variety of flightless raptor species, some are domesticated and used as mounts. Types are found in the plains, jungles, deserts, and wastes.

Archaeotherium - huge boar-like opportunists, found in the plains, deserts, and wastes.

Dimetrodon - generally not a problem, but territorial. The variety called the Solar Dimetrodon is found in deserts, storing sunlight in its shining sail. It can use this power to give itself a kind of energy boost, or blast an opponent with stored sunlight.

Giganotosaurus - bigger than a tyrannosaur, 'nuff said.

Gorgonopsid - replaces wolves as medium-size plains/scrub pack hunters. Never thought anyone else would bother with these until I played FF13. God damnit Square.

Hyaenadon - pack hunters of the deserts and wastes.

Indricotherium - you get these and the rarer herds of Dromiceioseismos (heheh) instead of elephants.

Koolasuchus - a really giant salamander capable of swallowing a man whole. When I was a lad I was obsessed/terrified with a similar animal called Eryops, but my old buddy just isn't big enough for my purposes here (swallowing people).

Megalania - 20' long komodo dragons, with equally filthy mouths. Found in the plains, scrubland, and jungle edges.

Hadrosaurs - many varieties of hadrosaur are found in marshes, forests, and plains.

Marine Life - hey, don't go swimming.

Look at this! This is totally awesome! Go check out some prehistoric animal artists on DeviantArt or something!

Strange Animals

There are many, many species of antelope, apes, monkeys, marsupials, birds (3,000 species), smaller therapods, pterosaurs, insects (50,000 species of beetles), etc. that are purely of my imagination but not worth individual description unless they come up in game.

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All images in this post are NOT my work, if that wasn't obvious. I needed to drop too much visual information here to make myself and it was readily available (plus sickness, so sick, so long, unngh). My motto/mission statement/rules/whatever is "Only use your own art. No text only posts." but I feel this is a reasonable exception to part one. I hope you enjoyed it, we'll be back to normal next time. Till then, Cool Rain Welcomes You Home.